Raise your hand if you have ever had conference brain? After a conference you are brimming with ideas and have a long list of things that you want to try, implement or learn more about. I don’t know about you but I often come down from the conference high, and land back in the real world with deadlines to manage, campaigns to organize and clients to please. I may get to one or two things on the list but far too often that list become one more of my kids with no shoes.

Overwhelmed (Photo credit: Walt Stoneburner)

Last week I attended the first ever Solo PR Pro Summit. It was an amazing event with a great lineup of speakers. The information shared was too valuable to languish in the “land of knowledge never applied” so I decided to try a different approach.

Post conference I started my day off with the #workhacks idea presented by Sarah Evans. As someone who was a Six Sigma trainer I truly appreciate efficiency improvements that are repeatable and help you reproduce the same high quality results in less time. The idea of #workhacks is to get more done in less time by strategically automating tasks and centralizing workflow to one hub.

My first workhack was to set up an account with Tracky which would function as my centralized hub for projects, ideas and status updates. Tracky will take time to really use effectively but is one of those hacks that has immediate payoff.

I cannot possibly implement everything I learned at the summit so made a prioritized list of tips that I could begin hacking away at over the next several months. I used Tracky to set up tips as tracks with links to the accompanying presentations and other resources that will help me work my way through putting insight into action. I can track my progress, and break up larger tasks into milestones. I can also add people to each track. This allows me to add subcontractors, subject matter experts or accountability partners to each specific project.

By using a project management approach, I am treating myself like a client (thanks to Heather Whaling for the reminder on this one) with a commitment to work on and not just in my business. The bonus is that I also have a personal development plan for the year to keep me growing, learning and becoming an even greater resource for clients.

How about you, do you have workhacks that help you to be more productive?